I See You Now
by mazewalker
Summary: Jock!Minho Artist!Aris AU
1. Chapter 1

Minho's life had always seemed like it was perfect. Complete. He had a solid group of friends, and was fairly popular. At his school being a runner was bigger than football and last year Minho and his friend Thomas had been the first freshman to ever make it on both varsity cross country and track. Girls loved him. He was so charismatic and had this charm people couldn't resist. He didn't think his life could be missing anything until he saw him.

 _Him._

Minho was walking down the hallway with some of his team mates sophomore year laughing about some crude joke when he turned his head to see him. A boy who looked about his age throwing his head back with laughter, a paintbrush tucked behind his hair. He stood right outside the art room with a girl who looked vaguely familiar and his eyes were lit up with what looked like magic. Minho stopped in the middle of the hallway as he was slammed into by a million thoughts and sensations. He felt like someone had sucked all the air out of him and was replacing it with some tangible form of happiness, of pleasure. The boy was beautiful. Sandy brown hair, freckles all over his tanned face, eyes that seemed to contain the answer to any question Minho could ever ask.

"Yo! Earth to Minho!" Frypan waved his hand in front of the stocky Asian who had abruptly halted. Frypan followed his gaze and nodded. "Oh yeah man she's hot" he chuckled clearly talking about the girl standing next to _him._

Minho shook his head and turned away from the art student and continued walking forward, but he couldn't get his mind off of this guy. This _guy._ Minho didn't realize until later as he was staring down at his lunch that the person who took over his thoughts was indeed a guy. He had never thought about another guy that way, but then again he had never thought about anyone that way. He had kissed several girls, but had always just been going through the motions never feeling a thing. Certainly never anything like this.

The rest of the day Minho tried to focus on anything but this boy, trying to make conversation with Thomas's girlfriend Brenda, but she just ranted about mistreated orkas making it hardly a conversation.

"Oh, Brenda, I forgot to mention that Min over here was making googly eyes over an art kid today." Thomas smirked.

"Ooo I might know her what did she look like?" Brenda seemed very interested because for the past year she had been trying to hook Minho up with one of her friends. "A lot of the art students are involved with the theatre department too!" She was the president of the drama club and was the definition of a theatre nerd. Thomas and her made an odd match but it seemed to work.

Thomas went on to explain all the details of the girl he had saw, and he didn't dare mention the girl was the least of his worries.

When school let out the sky seemed dark and dreary and Minho found himself wishing he was looking into the boy's eyes instead, as he ran the track for practice. He tried to distract himself in running, still not sure how to feel about these sudden feelings he was having. When practice ended he was more worn out than usual and was receiving compliments from the upperclassmen about his impressive new speed, but he kept quiet.

At home MInho ran straight up the stairs to his room and walked to his desk where he grabbed his freshman yearbook and sat on his bed while he flipped through it till he stopped, almost passing the page. There sitting in front of him was a picture of the boy from the year before still as striking as always. Aris. Aris Jones. MInho's heart did a weird thumpety thump thing. The boy was no longer nameless, his name was Aris. God, even his name was hot. Minho blushed at the thought. This whole thinking boys are hot thing was totally new and surprised him with every new thought. He was desperate to talk about it, to tell someone, but he was too scared of what people might think about him, of being ridiculed. So he just laid there on his bed staring at the ceiling as he let his thoughts go wild.

The next morning he was eating his bowl of Lucky Charms, he listened as the whatever news channel his parents were watching brought up a murder that had happened at a gay-pride parade. MInho heard this more than he usually would have and tucked his head down farther towards his cereal, trying to tune the television out. Then he heard his father say something he wished he could un hear.

"Served that fag right hope they enjoy their stay in Hell"

MInho's eyes widened and quickly grabbed his backpack and jogged out the door where he then decided to not wait for Thomas to pick him up as usual and started walking to school. His thoughts went crazy pounding on the inside of his skull and he knew that he had to ignore all these feelings he was having. He desperately tried to convince himself his feelings had been a mirage and were now gone. He had to.

Just as he walked up the steps he noticed Aris standing at a locker leaned up against it smirking at the girl, who he had also identified last night as Rachel and all those tingly feelings inside him he had tried to push away came flooding back. There was no avoiding how Aris made him feel without so much as a glance. Minho was in more trouble than he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Since MInho had first laid eyes on Aris in late sophomore year it had been several months. November was approaching quickly and the air seemed to swarm with the light feeling of autumn. And during the months since then Minho had come to terms with something pretty big: he was gay. And him realizing that seemed to clear his vision like a windshield wiper on a rainy day. Of course he hadn't told anyone, not even Thomas who he had gotten even impossibly closer to. In fact it was Thomas who really gave Minho that final push to go after what he wanted without even knowing.

Some time less than a week before Halloween Thomas and Minho laid in the basement of Thomas's house on their phones with the television droning on, providing both light and background noise as both of them were silent. Thomas let out a sigh and turned towards the black haired boy.

"I.. I think I'm in love with Brenda." His eyes were lit up with that something, that same kind of something that Minho felt whenever he looked at Aris.

"Really?"

"Yeah man I don't know when I realized it, but she makes me really really happy I don't even know how to describe it." He looked back up at the ceiling but kept going, "At first I was so concerned about what everyone else would think, and about status and all that other bullshit I barely noticed, but she worked her way in and I'm so thankful she didn't give up because now I'm happier than I've ever been before and it doesn't matter she's not a cheerleader or the most popular blonde barbie, she's just Brenda and she's perfect. I just wish I would have gotten over the social food chain thing earlier because at the end of the day what matters is that you're happy with your decisions, not if everyone else is."

"Oh"

"Yeah"

"So you think if I went after someone I really liked it wouldn't matter if they were… not the type of person the team usually goes for?" Minho chose his words carefully.

"Dude, I know who you're talking about." Thomas chuckled. Minho's eyes widened.

"You do?"

"I know it's been awhile since we talked about it, but I always see you looking over near the art room with googly eyes. Rachel is totally cute go for her!" It quickly became clear Thoms did in fact not know who he was talking about, but Minho smiled anyway. 'Don't let the crowd control your choices, we're Juniors for god sakes we should be able to make decisions based on what we really want."

"You're right." Minho whispered, almost to himself.

That next week Minho sat in the quad pretending to work on his Calculus homework with some other runners but really watching in slight awe as Aris leaned up against a tree sketching his surroundings and biting his lip. Then, completely shocking Minho, Aris turned his head and their eyes met and Aris grinned at him before looking back down at the sketch pad. Minho's heart sped up unreasonably quickly as he looked back down at his own papers, but he was smiling too. Aris had looked at him, and smiled.

After school Minho felt a burst of that trademark Minho boldness when he walked past the art room and saw out of the corner of his eye that Aris stood working on a painting. Taking a deep breath, Minho decided it was about damn time to do something about this crush that was consuming him.

He waked into the room from the far entrance, opposite to where Aris still stood, unbothered. As Minho looked around he saw several completed paintings strewn around the room and couldn't contain his amazement.

"Wow" he beamed loudly. Aris turned around, noticing him for the first time.

"Thanks" He smiled and turned back to his painting.

"You painted all of these?" Minho was in awe. Aris chuckled, not looking up.

"Yeah, I laid them out earlier so I could choose which ones to put in my portfolio."

"All of them for sure" Minho spoke, now gaining his confidence

"You think?"

"Definitely." Minho smirked and walked over to wall that the easel Aris was currently painting on lay. He casually leaned against it and watched Aris as he painted. This continued for a while and Aris started doing this thing where if he wasn't currently using a paint brush he would put it between his teeth so he didn't have to set it down and it was very... attractive. Finally looked up at Minho again with sparkling eyes, and set down his brushes.

"It's Minho, right?" Aris questioned causing the other boy to raise his eyebrows.

"Impressive guess."

"Haha no, Brenda mentioned you might find your way down here looking for Rachel"

"Oh… so, you and Rachel aren't dating then?"

"No, we aren't, but I do have information for you that might be uh important." Minho raised his eyebrows again in question. "She's well, she's into girls"

Minho continued to smile which caused Aris to be the one to raise a curious brow. The muscular boy stepped closer to Aris.

"It's a good thing she's not the one I'm into."

"W-what?"

Minho shook his head and laughed. "Nothing." He turned to leave and as he reached the door frame he turned around once more. "See you around, Aris" Minho winked at the boy and turned around the corner, out of sight in an instant. Aris felt a hot red blush creep up his face and he couldn't bite back the smile that came with it.


	3. Chapter 3

"Get in loser we're going shopping" Rachel called out to Aris as she pulled up in front of the school to pick him up. Aris granted her a loving eye roll. "Not really, I mean I wish, but I'm broke so ice cream sandwiches in my basement will have to do." She laughed at herself as they drove off.

After a brief rant about how pissed she was about some guy's racist shirt and how the school didn't dress code him, but they dress coded her cap-sleeved shirt and something or other, truth is Aris wasn't really listening as his mind was still on the Asian boy from earlier. He finally got a chance to talk.

"So… guess what?" Aris was itching to update her on the recent installment in his usually barren love life.

"You finally finished your painting for the gallery submission?" Rachel had been getting on him about that, he had been working on a painting for that project for weeks but he always thought his paintings were never quite right.

"Actually yes, I did," After Minho had left Aris had gotten a sudden burst of inspiration "but what I was going to say-" he was soon cut off by Rachel

"OH did you finally confront Mr. Janson about being a giant A-hole because he should not be able to talk to that way I swear I will become a member of the school board just to get his ass fired!"

"Rachel, no I-"

"OR I know, that girl from Art History told you she's madly in love with me because that's what I want to hear tbh."

"No-"

"A girl can dream though am I right? I mean-"

"MINHO PARK WAS FLIRTING WITH ME" Aris blurted out and Rachel slammed on the breaks a little causing the people behind us to honk, but Rachel just held up her middle finger at them, clearly very interested in what Aris had to say now. "I know! I wouldn't have pegged him as gay in a lifetime. Or bi or whatever point his I now understand what girls mean when they say "Minho Charm."

"I swear I've caught him staring at you before I can see it.." Rachel mumbled as if figuring something out.

"And you never thought to tell me? He just approached me in the art room and watched me paint for like a half and hour and then said some cryptic thing about being into somebody and winked when he left." Aris was getting visibly red at the memory.

"Damn." she muttered, pulling into her driveway.

Once they settled into her basement they continued their previous conversation on how the one of the most popular guys had taken a sudden interest in him.

"And earlier I was sketching in the quad and I totally caught him looking at me, I thought it was just odd timing, but maybe not.." The boy explained with a new paradigm.

"Totally not! Wow A&R on our way up." She wiggled her eyebrows and bobbed her head forward with a cheeky grin.

"I didn't realize our friendship had a catchy name?"

"You're lucky I didn't say GBF squared"

"Yeah wow my ears are forever tainted." Aris covered them up and Rachel snorted. "Maybe I'm reading too much into it, he's known for being super outgoing maybe he was just making friendly conversation."

"Oh, please when he was watching you paint silently for thirty minutes you're trying to tell me he was making friendly conversation and not undressing you with his eyes pfft okay. You're hot Aris I mean I'm gay, but I'm not that gay."

"You have to say that because we're best friends." Aris fake pouted.

"Yup that's the only reason I humor your childish whims" She hopped off the couch and dodged the Aris threw a pillow at her.

"I remember being promised ice cream sandwiches?"

"And you won't be disappointed"

The next day Gally and Minho sat in History, supposed to be working on a partner project, but as the teacher should have known when you pair any of those runners together no work ever gets done.

"Min you're coming to my Halloween party on Friday right? It's going to be so sick." Gally leaned on his desk, head in hands.

"Eh, seeing a bunch of couples grinding and making out? I could think of better things to do." Minho knew it would remind him of how alone he actually was.

"Nooooo Minho! You have to! And the guys and I were talking and we're going to hook you up with a hottie because you haven't dated anyone since like freshman year! We can't have our little Min Min lonely" Gally laid his head on Minho's desk and blinked up at him with puppy dog eyes. Minho rolled his own eyes but smirked at the brief thought of the only "hottie" he wanted to be hooked up with.

"Fine." Minho said grudgingly.

"Fine we can hook you up with someone?" He perked up, excited at the opportunity.

"No definitely not, but I'll go to your stupid party." Gally faked a wound to the heart at the petty insult but was smiling at his agreement.

"Okay, but I can't promise I won't invite someone who I bet you'll be into."

"Fine, but don't expect me to be thanking you."

"Deal."


	4. Chapter 4

Friday night soon rolled around and Rachel had received the magical invite from Gally. She had used the opportunity to make Aris tag along, seeing as Minho would probably be there and Aris only partially hid his excitement at this realization. Now, he leaned against Rachel's bedpost as she got ready, choosing between an array of different tops.

"You know Gally is probably trying to get in your pants right? You didn't think to mention you aren't interested in guys?" He questioned her, knowing this sort of thing had happened before.

"No, I did not because now you have an opportunity to see Minho away from school! This is for you! And also I bet the girl from Art History, Teresa, will be there too so it's a win win!"

Aris was skeptical "Except for Gally."

"Except for Gally." She laughed. "Now tell me, does this look slutty?" She turned away from the mirror to show her outfit to him which was rather revealing.

"Uh yeah kind of"

"Perfect." and she smiled patting him on the shoulder before exiting the bedroom.

Aris turned and looked in the mirror at himself. He wasn't very tall, or very buff, actually he was very skinny and his shirt hung loosely on his frame. He made a sort of cringe face at his reflection, he was never usually this self conscious. He started thinking about how small he was compared to Minho. The taller boy could easily wrap his arms around Aris and make all his troubles go away. A pink blush blossomed on his cheeks and he decided that was not a bad thing at all.

"Aris! Let's go!" Rachel called from down the stairs and Aris quickly grabbed his phone and headed down the stairs and out the door.

Aris had made Rachel stop to get something to eat before they went because he had learned through past experiences that she was a light weight and it was worse on an empty stomach. Much worse. So after they left IHOP Aris was happy to have a belly full of pancakes, and that the party probably was full of people already so their entrance would not be noticed.

And he was right. The house was packed with teenagers when they arrived spilling out of every door and balcony there was. Aris could feel the bass rattling his ribcage. He turned to Rachel to say something about what he was seeing, but she had already ran ahead of him entering the house. He was now alone.

He eventually made his way to a room that looked like it could have been the living room? And was making pointless small talk with a girl from his Econ class. The crowd was a little overwhelming making it very hard to focus on whatever this girl was talking about. Her boyfriend? Or her ex boyfriend? He wasn't sure and he didn't really care, so when another one of her friends tapped her on the shoulder he quickly took off in the opposite direction.

In the kitchen he hesitated slightly before grabbing a drink, deciding he didn't really care all that much. Soon after his senses were slightly dulled, he headed back into the crowd. Aris found his way up the stairs looking for a bathroom where he opened a bedroom door to reveal two people clearly having sex. He just kind of stood there shocked when he realized it was Gally and the girl Rachel liked, Teresa. He felt a pang of sadness for Rachel before Gally shouted at him.

"Dude!" Gally was very frustrated. Aris quickly shut the door and turned around. Trying to get away from the couple's room quickly he unknowingly ran into someone.

"Oh sorry I didn't see-" Aris looked up to see it was Minho and stopped. "Oh. Uh, sorry."

Minho chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. "It's okay I was actually looking for…"

"For me?" Aris felt a rush of boldness, most likely brought on by the alcohol. Minho blushed which was very cute Aris decided.

"Yeah actually. These parties are pretty sucky if you don't have anyone to talk to you actually ya know, want to talk to." Minho leaned casually against the banister blocking him from falling down to the main floor.

Aris bit his lip and smiled. "Agreed. So… oh, you're friends with Gally right? Do he and Teresa have a thing?" This probably wasn't the best flirting material, but he was genuinely curious.

"Not that I'm aware of. He's more of a free spirit you know, one girl to the next."

"Oh, I guess that would explain why he invited Rachel, was probably disappointed when he learned she was a lesbian and moved on to the next girl."

"No, he actually invited Rachel because all of my friends are convinced I'm in love with her or something, which I'm not by the way. If you were wondering" Minho kind of rambled off at the end getting slightly flustered.

"Oh so they think you're straight? Are you?" Aris continued his streak of speaking his unfiltered thoughts and his brain started on a trail of thoughts that he didn't want to go on.

"No, I'm not. But you're actually the only person I've told that, so they are pretty oblivious. They think I'm staring at Rachel, but I've been staring at you. Since sophomore year actually." Minho had gained a very flirtatious tone to his voice he wasn't using before and he stepped a little closer to Aris, who in turn felt his body tense a little.

"Oh." Before Aris could say anything else a loud female voice erupted from the room Afis had seen Gally and Teresa in.

"Yes! Captain Gally!" Teresa screamed which quickly turned into moans. The two boys shared a look and erupted into laughter.

"I've heard of a daddy kink, but a captain kink? That's new." Minho chuckled and Aris couldn't help but laugh at the joke. They then heard a very loud and very inappropriate noise escape Gally which silenced their laughter.

"Uh, do you want to go somewhere else?" Minho awkwardly asked.

"Yeah… can we go outside?"

"Definitely."

Soon the two boys had escaped the crowded house and had walked farther down the street to a playground which was deserted due to the time of night. They settled on the swing set casually swinging back and forth and laughing and talking about random things. Aris had learned Minho actually quite deep, despite his dry humor and sarcasm. Aris wondered on several occasions if he was a little drunk due to some shameless flirting.

Eventually they ended up lying on the top of the slides, looking up at the stars, not really saying much. Aris turned to look at Minho who stared at the sky his chest rising and falling with every breath of fresh air. Aris turned back to the stars as well.

"I used to have a crush on you actually in like third grade before I even really knew I was gay." Aris spoke quietly, eyes still focused on the twinkling lights above him. "We were playing a trivia game or something in class where we were on separate teams. And of course I got the last question, 'Who invented the cotton gin?' And also of course I had no idea, I mean I never paid attention I just sketched on all my worksheets and stuff, but you made eye contact with me from the other team's side and mouthed the answer to me. And my team won because of it. I never understood why you did that, but yeah I had a third grader crush on you for the rest of the year."

"What happened? Why'd it go away?" Minho asked. Aris had almost forgotten he wasn't talking to himself and was slighting startled at the voice.

"I guess it never really did, but it was unrealistic I suppose. I just kind of decided to stop so I wouldn't get my feelings hurt. I mean, you were kissing girls in the fifth grade! How was I supposed to know inside was a flaming hot ball of homosexuality begging to be released." Minho snorted at this comment and Aris was glad he had understood he was joking. Even though it was kind of true.

Aris phone rang playing the very familiar lyrics of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl causing MInho to burst out with laughter. "Really? Hollaback Girl" Minho raised his eyebrows and Aris scowled.

"Rachel chose her own ringtone!" He defended himself as he answered his best friends call. Her very drunk voice slurred on the other line. He turned it on speaker so he could hear her more clearly.

"Aris!" She let out a loud giggle. "Where are youuu?"

"Uh I'm just down the street at the park, it's right where you parked your car."

"Ooo I bet your at the park the Minho Park! Get some Aris!" And then she started imitating these sexual noises and Aris very quickly turned the phone off speaker and held it up to his ear, avoiding Minho's face.

"No, Rachel just tell me where you are."

"I'm walking down to the park now don't worry Air Bear! Just don't be doing it when I get there I don't need to see that." She laughed and took a loud sip of something. Aris just hoped Minho couldn't see how red his face had become. He waited to hang up until he could visibly see her walking towards them.

"Wow she's really trashed" Minho commented as she came into sight. Aris was used to this by now, Rachel was a little too into parties. More than you would expect from an art student with a passion for musical theatre, but she had fun and she never got into any trouble, so there wasn't too much of a problem. He took the drink from her hand when she got close enough though, because she definitely did not need anymore.

"Hey Minho" She smirked at him and wiggled her brows. She turned back to Aris "Yeah the Teresa thing didn't happen, but I did meet someone" She giggled and sat down in the sand.

"Oh?"

"Yeah her name is Harriet. She's on the lacrosse team and she's a senior and-" She looked at Minho and decided to whisper the last part to Aris. She giggled loudly as she brought her lips up to his ears. "And we had sex." She fell back giggling.

"Yeah, we should get you home Rach." He turned to Minho. "I'll see you around?"

"I'll hold you to that."

When Rachel got into the passenger seat of her car and shut the door Aris turned to the taller boy once more. "You're different than I thought you'd be."

"Oh? Is that bad?"

"No! No. Youre just more… more real. You're not Minho Park the track star and Minho Park the boy everyone is totally in love with and who all the parents goggle about how blindingly bright your future is. You're just you. Just Minho. And I like it. I like it a lot." Aris smiled a real genuine smile that made Minho feel tingly all over, before getting in the driver's seat and driving away.

 _I like it alot._ The words bounced around Minho's head as he was left there, alone in the dirty sand of a children's park at three in the morning, but he didn't mind. He didn't mind at all.


End file.
